When players don't show up to the session

[MythandLore]

I just pull their character out of the game and strip them of useful items incase other players need to use any of them, they get no exp.
-Poof- they're gone, no harm can come to them then and they get nothing in return.
It can make it hard on the party though.

The other option is when they come back they can chose the coin flips of death, it's like the character went on it's own personal (horribly deadly) side quest:
COIN FLIPS OF DEATH
Flip 2 coins.
2 Tails - Exp=to double what the other players gained that session
1 Tails 1 - Heads Exp=to the other players gained that session
2 Heads - Character dies and body and everything destroyed only way to come back is Res or Wish etc. if not Res'd then make a new character 1 level lower then your last character with no equipment.

Hmm, no one has ever picked the coin flips.

 

[Steven McRownt]

Re: Hrmmm...well...

Of course, the best advice I can give to ANYONE for ANY DMing situation: Learn to Improvise. This will save you lots of time, trouble and headache. That way, if someone isn't there, you can just adjust the # of creatures and/or the EL on the fly. Treasure's a little harder to improvise easily, but can still be done.

It's almost 12 years that i play D&D, and 9 years that i am DMing. I usually try to find some excuse that make sense, because i prefer that things run in the right way. The majority of times they go "scouting" or "guarding" some site that becomes interessing, and at the next session i brief them with some little information of very little use, depending on a search roll. That kind of information will never be important though, and of course they will not gain any Xps. If the group is wiped out (it happened) even their character will be considered dead (after all he will never have a chance to survive alone, and then.... he was absent!). In the mean time i try to adjoust to the minimum what we call now ECL, but sometimes i just lower HPs and some little things and then calculate the awards with a little modification.

In that way the group is aware that without amember of the group it could be harder and harder to keep going, and so they should try to be there nearly always, to not hear the rest of the group complain the next session!

I started this thread just to see if other DM take the things seriously as I am, or have some clever ideas. Thanx anyway for keeping this thread alive!

ps Ciao Zappo, always glad to know there are more italians here to bring some good ideas!!!!!!

Steven McRownt

 

[Steven McRownt]

In the case of death, the MPC will suffer no negative consequences for being raised. However, no breaks on obtaining that Raise Dead will be given.

That's a good idea.

Stef